


Two Old Men on a Couch

by CrossingTheFourthWall



Series: The Actions of Puppets [4]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Puppet AU, West Coast Tech, changeling stan, conversation about the Kicking Out Night, just two old guys talking, nothing bad happens -- promise!, post-puppet au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22414573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossingTheFourthWall/pseuds/CrossingTheFourthWall
Summary: Set some time after the events of Puppet AU: Recovery and Interdimensional Investigations.Stanley's got a question for his changeling counterpart, Crescent.
Series: The Actions of Puppets [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/981552
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Two Old Men on a Couch

**Author's Note:**

> Probably not the best of titles, but eh. I wasn't really thinking of any good titles when I wrote this short thing up. And it IS short, considering the chapter lengths I usually throw out there.
> 
> Written for Stanuary 2020, week 3: AUs. I may write more drabbles, but I'll have to see how that goes. Still trying to get my writing mojo back.

“Hey, Crescent, got a question for ya.” Stanley sat down on the ratty yellow couch that was slowly collapsing into the back porch, attention on this strange counterpart he had been sharing his home with for the last few years.

By all accounts, his counterpart _looked_ human, but it was the green in his eyes instead of the brown that really gave him away.

“What’s up?” Crescent glanced over at his counterpart, a pair of eyes opening on his arm and focused on the coffee cup in Stanley’s hands. He had to suppress a shudder – eyes in unusual places wasn’t entirely…well, _unusual_ in Gravity Falls, but there was something about Crescent’s green eyes that made him extremely unnerved.

But this was a question he’d been mulling over in his head recently, and there wasn’t much point in sitting around waiting for someone else to ask it.

“You, uh…you ever think about that night?”

Crescent turned his head fully to look at Stanley, frowning.

Stanley decided to elaborate. “When we got kicked out. You remember, right?”

Crescent frowned. “Oh. That. Not…really?” He shrugged. “It was a long time ago; ya really think I’d think about that? There was that whole…mess.”

He motioned vaguely, but Stanley knew what his counterpart meant.

“Yeah.” Stanley looked back at his coffee, frowning. “It’s just…it kinda still bothers the rest a’ us sometimes, if ya know what I mean. Lotsa ‘what ifs.’”

“Yeah, I get that.” Crescent raised a hand and frowned at it, only for an eye to open on his palm and stare back at him. He shook his head and closed it a moment later. “I’ve had days like that. Part a’ me wishes I’d…y’know, become somethin’ _else._ Shapeshiftin’ inta people is nice when I wanna get away from the cops, but…it’s not all it’s cracked up ta be.”

“Yeah, ya mentioned that.” Stanley leaned back against the couch and looked out across the lawn. One of the nephews was walking into the woods, tree-branch antlers very visible. “Think the kids think the same thing?”

“Probably.” Crescent sighed heavily. “Not much we can do ‘bout that now, though. Goin’ back in time isn’t gonna happen, what with the dimension bein’ destroyed ‘n all. So no, I haven’t thought about that night, an’ I’m not plannin’ on it. No point in thinking about it if we can’t _do_ anythin’ about it.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Crescent rested his hands behind his head and looked up at the porch’s awning. “Why’d ya ask, anyway? I mean, it was a while ago, both for me an’ for you.”

“Yeah, well…it comes up, sometimes. Stanford, uh…he got an invite ta speak at West Coast Tech.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Kinda…dug up a few things, I guess.” Stanley went to get a drink from his coffee and blinked when he realized that it was already empty. He must’ve drunk it all during the conversation already. “He _says_ he’s glad he didn’t go an’ attend classes there, but…ya know? I gotta wonder.”

“I gotcha. Sounds like publishin’ all those papers is startin’ ta pay off.” Crescent paused. “Although, if he _went_ there, he wouldn’t’a met Fidds.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Crescent frowned. “Is it _Stanford_ who got it, or the guy who published the paper? Cuz there’s more than one Stanford Pines in the house.”

“You know that, and _I_ know that, but nobody else outside’a Gravity Falls knows that except for the kid’s parents in Piedmont. Why’d ya ask?”

Crescent shrugged. “Just thinkin. Did some pokin’ around ta figure out what kinda people they are.. Think we’d be able ta blow their minds if more than one Stanford showed up.” A grin started to slowly cross his face, showcasing sharper-than-humanly-possible teeth. It wasn’t a bloodthirsty grin, but it was definitely sharp.

Stanley frowned, but then slowly started to grin himself as Crescent’s statement settled in. “I think I get where you’re goin’ with this. You wanna see the looks on their faces, yeah?”

“That’s the idea.” Crescent grinned. “Our bros may have been passed over, but we wanna make ‘em _regret_ not bringin’ ‘em in, ya know? Really, _really_ regret not bein’ able ta say our genius brothers graduated from their institute. I wanna see if he’s gonna go over the _top_ with whatever it is they wanna have him talk about.”

Crescent motioned in some direction – he wasn’t really thinking of a specific one – as more green eyes opened up his exposed arms. All of them were squinting in a way that made Stanley think of a grin, but before he could connect their expressions to anything terrible, they were gone at once.

“We don’t wanna _completely_ throw ‘em off, though. Just…give ‘em somethin’ that says ‘ha ha, I got all this an’ you won’t get your hands on it ever’ or somethin’.” Stanley tapped his chin in thought. “Whaddaya think?”

“Sounds great.” Crescent grinned widely. “Ya know, it seems somethin’ good _does_ come from thinkin’ about that night.”

Stanley blinked sharply. “Y-yeah?”

“Yeah. We can think of all the ways we can _screw ‘em over.”_

Stanley stared at his counterpart, then started chuckling. Crescent joined in, and soon enough there were two old men sitting on a ratty old couch on an August morning, cackling loudly about some half-baked plot that was not fully realized.

But it would become something soon enough.


End file.
